Molly Olsen 05/27/97 04:31 PM Mike Frank wrote: >>laserdiscs and laserdisc players will likely >> go the way of the turntable as DVD penetration increases . . . > >which seems to imply that turntables for what we used to call records are no longer available . . . >and this is simply not true . . . in fact tunrtables are now better than ever[...] I didn't mean to imply that turntables are not available at all -- what I meant was that laserdiscs would become less popular and harder to find, like records and turntables are now. That said, I don't thing people are going to have the same sentimental attachment to laserdiscs (or the laserdisc format) as they do to records (or the record format) which is a large part of what keeps that medium going among collectors. The original question from Don Larsson was "How will all of our current standard electronic image technologies be affected by the switch to digital?" and went on to ask which equipment we'll use and keep. Leo Enticknap responded: >My guess would be that a turntable-like scenario will exist for about a decade after any new >format gains market acceptance. [...] With laserdiscs the situation will be slightly different in that >they were intended primarily as a long-term library format, not a short-term timeshifting device. With DVD, anyone who buys movies to watch at home (think of all those homes with THE LION KING tape in the den) *will* be a film librarian, without the expense of laserdiscs and the fragility of VHS. If by the 10-year rule, you mean that movie companies will continue to release movies in the older medium, I don't think that will be true for laserdiscs, because the laserdisc market is already so small, it's a blip compared to the mass-market format (now VHS). Why manufacture a movie on laserdisc for a few people *and* DVD for the masses when the quality is at least as good on DVD? As a cinemaphile, why collect laserdiscs and not DVDs, when the DVD has more information (multiple aspect ratios, guided tours from the director, subtitling or dubbing, etc.) and as-good-or-better image quality? > So, no need to panic just yet, basically, but when things do start happening, anyone charged >with maintaining significant collections of recordings should start to make plans. As a cinemaphile myself I won't invest in laserdiscs now that DVDs are available in stores. Things are happening already! Molly Olsen Producer Discovery Channel Multimedia [log in to unmask] ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite